Union's early struggles sound very familiar

CHESTER — Based on the conversations unfolding in the media room at Talen Energy Stadium, you might have to check the calendar to be sure of what year it is.

The Philadelphia Union have started an MLS season slowly, which has become something of an annual rite of passage each spring. But the specific manner of the struggles — creating chances without finishing them, defensive breakdowns, a gulf between expected goals on the stat sheet and actual goals on the field — seems eerily familiar to last year’s early futility.

But if there’s a silver lining in the repetition, it’s that 2018’s struggling Union team of March turned into one of MLS’s best squads of August. And this year’s version has the built-in element of a new system implemented by Ernst Tanner that seeks to replicate last year’s trajectory minus the October drop-off.

“We can certainly turn things around,” manager Jim Curtin said Wednesday at his weekly press conference. “It’s two games. They’re not happy. I don’t want that to be misconstrued. The players are upset, and dropping points at home against Toronto, knew Kansas City was going to be a tough one, but actually performed well.

“It is a new season. It’s a new group of guys. It’s a new formation. It’s a new style. I think we’ve responded well to it, and I think we have created chances. But we do have to finish those chances.”

In two games, losses at home to Toronto and at Sporting Kansas City last week, the Union have been outscored, 5-1. They’ve yet to score from open play, and Marco Fabian’s missed penalty last week didn’t help. But the Union, per Opta Stats, have an xG of 4.57 through two weeks, meaning they’ve generated enough chances to expect to have scored much more than they have.

When you factor in the change in systems, the replacement of last year’s principle attacking animator Borek Dockal with Fabian and a daunting schedule that doesn’t ease up this week with a visit to reigning MLS Cup holders Atlanta United, a sluggish start is even more understandable. The longer it lasts, the less palatable it becomes, but the Union are barely past the starting line of the MLS marathon.

“I’m a big believer in that if we stick with the good things we’re doing, we improve on the things that we still have to tweak and get better — certainly defensively we can still shore up some things as an entire group,” Curtin said. "If we can continue to do that, the group will move forward, and just like last year, all of a sudden, you get a result. Some of the goals start to go in and it kind of snowballs.”

The Union, one of just three clubs without a point through two weeks, hope to get the ball rolling at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, against an Atlanta squad struggling under new coach Frank de Boer. The Union will have to pursue that without Fabian, who was red-carded for violent conduct after stepping on SKC’s Johnny Russell after a flying tackle. The Union will not appeal, Curtin said.

The absence likely thrusts 18-year-old Homegrown Brenden Aaronson into his first MLS appearance, though Curtin wouldn’t commit to the Medford, N.J., native beyond saying that it’ll be someone who’s been in the squad the last few weeks that the Union have tried to get on the field.

Mark McKenzie trained Wednesday after missing the trip to Kansas City with a concussion. He has progressed out of concussion protocol.

Ilsinho left a scrimmage with Bethlehem Steel after being stepped on and will be evaluated. Missing that exercise was Sergio Santos, who will miss at least four weeks with a grade 2 hip flexor strain suffered in practice this week.